In martial arts, student learn practices sometimes before or in parallel with values and principles. For those just seeking a simple introduction (like simple self defense techniques), the learn only practices for common scenarios.

The question for this lunchtime discussion was this: Is there some basic practices that the “newbie facilitator” should be shown and then have values and principles introduced in parallel or later?

This was a good primer discussion for Diana's session on Retrospective fluency

Notes from the discussion are below:

• you cannot be both facilitator and participant
• make good use of the time
• you are there to serve (not drive)
• you own the process, not the content
• follow the content

• (highly visible) purpose & agenda
• working agreements
• you need a process (ala' Agile Retrospectives book)
• multiple exercises - always build on this toolkit
• you also need a meta-method (e.g., when humans are thinking clearly, this is how they process information)
  • See The Grove's OARR method
    • Outcome
    • Agenda
    • Roles
    • Rules
• mimic by observing different styles
  • e.g., shadow/observe other facilitator's as often as you can
• learn and watch for Beginner Traps
  • learn appropriate responses (ala' self defense for facilitator's)
  • See Esther and Emmanual's talk at Agile2007
• When you can't be there, you need to be more explicit (about practices and principles)
  • i.e., distributed teams

See Diana's session on Retrospective fluency for more information.

Mark asked me to write up some of the advice I give new facilitators. I did so here: http://www.estherderby.com/weblog/2009/05/tips-for-retrospective-facilitators.html

This (partial) list is based on the mistakes that seem typical of new facilitators.